Do you happen to have such
a thing as change for a five-pound note about you?"
"Alas!" replied the lad, with ready presence of mind, "but I have only
just paid all my gold into my bank for the day!"
"No matter," said the Bishop, gently. "I find I have a threepenny
bit, after all. It is yours!" And the good ecclesiastic, as if to
avoid thanks, moved nimbly off, though his eyes still sought the
shop-windows as he passed, with even greater complacency than before.
BEN tested the threepenny bit between his teeth--it was a spurious
coin; he looked up, but his late customer was already passed out of
hearing of his sentiments. He sank down with his head laid amongst
his pots and brushes. "Bilked!" he moaned piteously, "bilked--and by a
blooming Bishop!"
CHAPTER IV.
But mark the sequel. The good Bishop had been quite ignorant that the
threepenny bit was a pewter one; quite sincere, for the time, in his
determination to subdue his own weakness. Still it was not to be:
inbred pride is not so easily vanquished--even by Bishops! The Bishop
learned to glory in his blacking far more than he had ever done in the
original mahogany.
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